Tolerance cannot be measured in terms of degrees of intolerance. I am essentially opposed to burning books even when they incite others to violence. But freedom is either an absolute or it is conditioned on not inciting others to violence. Anything else is rationalized bigotry.

Search This Blog

Thursday, December 19, 2013

The American Studies Association and Fascism

The American Studies Association
or ASA approved a boycott of Israel
and NOW we are concerned that these bigots will influence others by their eliminationist
agenda.I read an excellent piece by Peter
Beinart, the bête noir of American Jewish literary circles and it is really well
written as one would expect from him. In it he deconstructs the hypocrisy of
the politically dubious ASA and what he refers to as its ‘morally myopic’
agenda in denying the legitimacy of a democratic Jewish state, even alongside a
Palestinian one.

What is the controversy all
about? Simply put, the ASA is a small association of American professors who
teach a discipline that is called “American History.” On Monday 16th
December they voted to endorse a boycott of Israeli universities. They did not
vote to boycott any other country nor would they. Curtis Marez, chief gauleiter
and association president did respond to criticism of their particularistic
approach to Israel by limply
telling the New York Times “one has to start somewhere.” But while I am not a
betting man I would lay very long odds on the chance that the ASA will boycott any
time in the foreseeable future any Muslim country, or for that matter, China,
Russia or Venezuela.

The issue that the left has with Israel has been
crystallizing over many years. The Left is not a hegemonic faith group – so to
ascribe to them a universal belief system would be as bigoted as is the ASA.
But the characteristic prejudice of the purist is a stain that many would
publicly deny but privately wear with pride.Here are the articles of faith:

All Jews are Western.

Following on from the crime of being Western, all
Jews are colonizers and imperialists.

Similarly racist is the contention that all Jews
are white skinned.

All Jews are middle-class.Therefore they are the timeless enemy of
the workers. This is justified by education and ‘cultural inclination.’

We have brought the problem onto
ourselves and not because we have been insufficiently critical of Israel or
ourselves as Jews. God knows that we are the most intellectually bellicose,
argumentative and too often obnoxious know-alls on the planet.Our group identity is based on us being a
caring and therefore hyper-expressive, thinking people. But because we are not
a hegemonic, a missionary faith, we do not silence our internal critics and by
allowing a thousand flowers to blossom we are far too often not just at odds
with ourselves but in open warfare against each other.A person who is born of parents who profess a
Jewish ‘identity’ who in turn professes a similar ‘identity’ but only in order
to use this spurious distinctiveness to attack Jews is a too common
intellectual instrument of our enemies.Jews who use this weapon do so as racists, far too eager to gain
acceptance from people they fear will never truly accept them as equals.

The final characteristic of this
‘leftist’ group is that they are fascists.No matter what proof you provide in contradistinction to the four articles
of faith to which I refer above, they will never accept the validity of your
arguments because they adhere to formal fallacies or if you wish, fallacy by
association.

Because Jews (those that do not
agree with them in absolute terms) cannot be anything but as they see them (or
us) we have no right to disagree with them and therefore any argument we put
forward that contradicts them must be ipso facto, wrong.

Under these circumstances the
only remedy is to use identical stratagems.

What do people like Mister Marez
fear? It is oblivion. Money is what drives them – lots of it. The louder they
are, the more well known they become – the greater their status, the bigger the
wad of cash they can claw from the bodies that employ them. There is a balance
– academic freedom is not about truth but about what we can ‘get away with
saying.’The professional political
racist knows his audience. Mr. Marez
will not be attacking Afro Americans or Latinos nor will he be open to
discussion on Chinese or Muslim crimes against humanity. He will certainly hold
his tongue and look the other way when the right kind of bigots visits UC San
Diego.Student numbers are directly
proportionate to the influence and wealth of the institutions themselves. So
discouraging student numbers by attacking the group to which they belong would
be an unwise strategy.

Selective morality is unusual neither
in nations nor in their universities. Deceit in academia is certainly nothing
new.Self –justification for taking an amoral
or actively immoral stand is always easier if we enjoy the support of our
fellow academics.When Iraq was
torturing and slaughtering Shiites by the tens of thousand “the Left” kept
silent because the anti-war movement deemed resolution of the conflict to be an
expression of Western imperialism and therefore, “the Left” would not tolerate
any discussion.Humanitarian concern was
met with violent opposition.

“The Left” is morally indigent,
viewing any concept of morality as governed by purpose and result.By this reasoning the “oppressed” can do no
wrong and the “oppressor” can do no right.If morality is an instrument of politics then terms are defined not by
ethics but by ideology – concepts of morality become not just time specific but
also location and community dependent.Under these conditions the Law is at best a guide and at worst, a
conceit.

Peter Beinart summed up the issue
with perfect precision when he stated that the issue is “Not that the ASA is
practicing double standards and not even that it’s boycotting academics, but
that it’s denying the legitimacy of a democratic Jewish state, even alongside a
Palestinian one.”

And we should be concerned
because outliers create unease but little else, until that is, they build a
momentum dictated by fashion.Hitler did not succeed because all Germans
were genocidal racists but because a small and ideologically committed group
was able to convince the rest that their way was acceptable; that violence and
murder was alright.And academia
actively and enthusiastically collaborated in this program because in it, they
saw the benefit to themselves.

8 comments:

This editorial takes the easy way out here, abetted by a NY Times editor who cut back Marez’s quote to 5 words after the first version of the story included two paragraphs explaining the ASA’s position in more detail. Here is the rest of the quote: “He argued that the United States has “a particular responsibility to answer the call for boycott because it is the largest supplier of military aid to the state of Israel.” While acknowledging that the same could be said of a number of oppressive governments, past and present, he said that in those countries, civil society groups had not asked his association for a boycott, as Palestinian groups have.” Both of these things are true, but it’s far easier for right-wing hacks to generate a reductive meme that pretends this is all Marez said. Right-wing hacks cut back a substantial quote to 5 contextualized words, and you and others ran with it in an effort to have an easy “glib” story. This is irresponsible, shoddy journalism. You should be ashamed.

Regardless of what Marez said, the ASA is now boycotting Israel and only Israel. Not any other, far more deserving of boycott country - and we could all name at least a dozen - but only Israel.

Deeds speak far louder than words. If the ASA added Israel to a list of countries whose governments or actions they took exception to, then I have no problem with that. But they didn't. They singled out just one country for their boycott. Their action stinks of hypocrisy and racism and any attempt by anyone to excuse or explain their actions is either complicit or unbelievably naive. Which are you?

IMO they also base their boycotts on half truths, misleading statements and propaganda to an audience that isn't very smart (regardless of how many degrees one has earned), hasn't studied the factual and proven history and that the Jews are indigenous to that land, and jump on the anti-Israel boycott as if it's the "trendy" thing to do.

There should be open dialogue and free expression, not a bigoted silencing and isolating of one of the globe's most excellent models of freedom, democracy and equal rights.

Why should I be ashamed? The ASA have demonstrated their fascist credentials over a number of years and their excuse that a Palestinian group asked them to do it is a gigantic, pathetic cop-out. In fact it is the behavior of a child excited by the attention that their action delivers to them and not of a responsible academic institution. Trying to understand the moral failures of "the Left" does not excuse them - the rest of the quote I deliberately omitted - it was not relevant to the purpose of the article. Far from being shoddy I suggest that your need to attack is more to do with your own moral failure than anything else.

Do you know that over 75% of US "aid" to Israel goes to military support - AND that Israel turns around and spends it right back in the US via its purchases? Putting US people to work, and giving the money back. How about anybody else? Palestinian aid is, well, charity, and obviously funds for them to reward terrorists and murderers. $50,000 get out of jail prize. $25,000 to mom and dad if you kill yourself. That's where American money is going to the Palestinians. So don't even attempt to make US to Israel an issue.

they are the largest recipient of US foreign loans - and a percentage of that loan is not genuinely aid - i.e. most of it is repayable - if we factor in the US military aid to nations such as Iraq (around a trillion dollars in less than a decade and Afghanistan (around $200 billion dollars in non-repayable aid) and Saudi Arabia (only God knows the true cost) then Israel - at the present rate will not in a thousand years - be the largest recipient of US foreign aid. Deal with that.